So, where are all of the mummies?

Not the sarcophagus or tomb ornaments – but the actual preserved mummies?

It turns out they are housed in specialized display space at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, Egypt.

Could we really spend over 2 weeks in Egypt and not see some mummies?

That is a hard no.

On our final day in Egypt our departing flight was scheduled to leave at 3 a.m. local time – so we had a full day in Cairo with nothing scheduled before heading to the airport. So, we decided to head to one last museum on our final day to see some mummies.

It turns out that Uber worked well in Cairo – so we went on the app and arranged for an Uber to take us from the Intercontinental Hotel to the National Museum for Egyptian Civilization. It was a 20 to 25 minute ride depending on traffic.

The museum was officially completed in 2021 with the transfer of 22 mummies from the historic Egyptian Museum to the new facility. The mummies were moved with a lot of pomp and circumstance with what was termed the “Pharaoh’s Golden Parade” (which is available to watch on YouTube if you are interested. )

The museum was largely broken into two major floors – the top floor had numerous historical displays from ancient times to present day. The bottom floor had all of the mummies in carefully preserved glass containers along with audio commentary on each pharaoh or queen.

We started on the top floor and enjoyed walking through the displays. Interestingly, we had seen very similar artifacts throughout the previous two weeks at many other museums on our tour of Egypt.

You could follow arrows on the floor which helped direct you from one display to the next in a chronological fashion from ancient times to more modern-day displays. All of the signage was in English and Arabic – so it was easy to read the commentary and background information at each display case.

I had my camera ready to snap some amazing pictures of the different mummies on display. Alas – no photography was permitted – and there were plenty of museum guards to ensure that everyone complied with the no photos or video rule.

We did purchase the audio tour so that we were able to hear about each of the mummies in each room by typing in the appropriate display number. Interestingly all the audio commentary did was to verbally read what was written in English by each of the mummies. So if you go I am not sure the audio headsets are worth the extra money.

The preservation of the mummies was remarkable – and you could make out many details of facial expressions and see their mummified hair.

Our Viking Tour guide had mentioned to us previously that many of the details on the mummification process were not written down and were lost over time – so that even with today’s modern technology we are still not able to fully replicate the chemistry used to prepare the Ancient Egyptian mummies.

It was time to head back to our hotel and get dinner prior to a nap and then an early morning departure to the airport.

All we had to do was to call an Uber and get safely back to the hotel from the museum. How hard could that be?

On the way to our hotel, our Uber driver missed an exit on the ring road (similar to an Interstate bypass in the U.S.). that goes around Cairo. He felt no need to turn around. He just put on his hazard lights and backed up 150 meters into oncoming traffic until he was back on the main ring road. He put the car in drive and simply continued our journey back to the hotel. Thank goodness we had our seatbelts on and did not get rear ended – which would not have been a great way to end our Egyptian trip.

After a quiet dinner at the hotel, it was time to pack up and head home to Richland, Washington.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure in Egypt – for those of you who have read all 12 postings – thanks for following along. It was a great trip and I certainly enjoyed briefly chronicling our perspectives and sharing our experiences with you.

If you have a trip to Egypt on your bucket list – my only advice is what Nike commercials used to say.

Just do it.

Until next time …